Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Galactic Center in Infrared

NASA ^ | January 17, 2016 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light, much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust. In infrared light, however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the featured photograph. The Galactic Center itself appears on the left and is located about 30,000 light years away towards the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). The Galactic Plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, the plane in which the Sun orbits, is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane. The absorbing dust grains are created in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars and grow in molecular clouds. The region directly surrounding the Galactic Center glows brightly in radio and high-energy radiation, and is thought to house a large black hole.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: 2MASS Project, UMass, IPAC/Caltech, NSF, NASA]

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

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[samtheman]

thanks

[Flick Lives]

We live out in "the country" of our local galaxy. Imagine how many stars appear in the night sky if one lives on planet toward the galactic core. I wonder if their night skies are even dark?

[BBB333]

We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point
We go ‘round every two hundred million years
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is

So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightfall_(Asimov_short_story_and_novel)

“Nightfall” is a 1941 science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov about the coming of darkness to the people of a planet ordinarily illuminated at all times on all sides. It was adapted into a novel with Robert Silverberg in 1990. The short story has been included in 48 anthologies, and has appeared in six collections of Asimov’s stories.[citation needed] In 1968, the Science Fiction Writers of America voted Nightfall the best science fiction short story written prior to the 1965 establishment of the Nebula Awards, and included it in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964.

[Lurker]

“So can we have your liver then?”

L

[captmar-vell]

Nice pic,

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” Psalm 8:3-4

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork.” Psalm 19:1

[SunkenCiv]

btw, that was a stumper! In fact, I just looked it up, and I’m still stumped. :’) I’ll have to listen to it on the other machine.

[BBB333]

I chose not to quote the majority of the lyrics - just starting from the ‘Galactic Center’ bit.

Should have tagged it - Galaxy song, Monty Python

Do listen, it’s very excellent!

[SunkenCiv]

Isaac Asimov — “Nightfall” (1941)
https://www.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/nightfall.pdf

[SunkenCiv]

Well, that isn’t even the one I found...

http://listenmusicfm.net/track/30,000-Light-Years-From-the-Center-by-Vir-Unis-with-lyrics-2633672

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_Song

[Flick Lives]

Isaac Asimov — “Nightfall” (1941)

—

Good one. I forgot about that book.